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2 Minn. women have meningitis tied to steroids, official says

Health officials have confirmed two cases of meningitis in Minnesota after the patients received injectable steroids from a pharmacy in Massachusetts.

Buddy Ferguson of the Minnesota Department of Health said both cases involve women in their 40s.

"I don't know specifically when and where they received the injectable steroids," Ferguson said. "There are just a couple of provider groups in Minnesota that use product from that particular compounding pharmacy, so presumably they would have gotten the injectable steroids through those providers."

Ferguson said that about 950 patients of six facilities operated by Medical Advanced Pain Specialists and the Minnesota Surgery Center in Edina, Fridley, Shakopee and Maple Grove used the drugs from the New England Compounding Center.

He said officials have contacted about a third of those patients so far and expected to finish by Sunday night.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that products from the New England Compounding Center have been linked to 47 other cases of fungal meningitis, including seven deaths, in several states.

The Minnesota patients have been hospitalized and are being treated with antibiotics and antifungal drugs.

"They both had, as I understand it, relatively mild symptoms, but again we're trying to air on the side of caution here," Ferguson said.

Fungal meningitis symptoms include headache, fever, sensitivity to light, a stiff neck or pain at the injection site.